Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries
Written by a leading mental skills coach and contributing writer to Runner’s World (US), this is a practical guide to building the psychological resilience that athletes need to recover from injury and rebound stronger.
Injuries affect every athlete, from the elite Olympian to the weekend racer. In the moment, a traumatic crash, a torn muscle, or a stress fracture can feel like the most devastating event possible. While some athletes are destroyed by the experience, others emerge from their recovery better, stronger, and more confident than ever.
The key to a swifter, stronger comeback is the use of mental skills: psychological tools that enable an athlete to take control of their recovery and ultimately use the experience to their advantage. Injury and other setbacks are inevitable – but with training, overcoming them skillfully and confidently is possible.
This book will provide a clear, compelling explanation of psychological recovery from injury and a practical guide to building mental resilience. Weaving together personal narratives from star athletes, scientific research, and the specialized clinical expertise of mental skills coach Carrie Jackson Cheadle, it will contain more than 45 Mental Skills and Drills that athletes can use at every phase of their recovery process. These same strategies can help athletes who aren’t currently injured reduce their vulnerability to injury, and enable any individual to reach new heights within their sport and beyond.
What makes Rebound unique is how it combines practical mental tools with real-life stories of athletes who’ve bounced back stronger. It helped me reframe my negative thoughts and turn my injury into an opportunity to grow both mentally and physically.
If you're an athlete, fitness enthusiast, or even a coach, this book is a must-read. It doesn’t just focus on physical recovery — it trains your mind to build resilience, so you're not only healing but coming back stronger. Whether you're dealing with a minor setback or a major injury, Rebound will guide you through the ups and downs of recovery. Highly recommend!
Kathleen Moore LPC-S
Licensed Professional Counselor-Supervisor
I heard about it from a great podcast interview and immediately read it cover-to-cover, then went through it again with a marker pen and sticky notes and have dipped into it many times per week since.
The tone is universally supportive and practical. It acknowledges how much the situation sucks, and real things that you can work on to come through the situation. It does not fall into the trap of asserting that if you try hard enough there will be a fairytale ending, but gives real examples of what people have done.
I recommend this to everyone!
(And the Facebook community gives a practical day-to-day dose as well)
There are several athlete testimonials about their injuries and how they bounced back that I found wonderfully encouraging. I also like the tools that the authors provide at the end of each chapter to help you identify where you are in your bouncing back process. Many of these techniques could be applied to any traumatic situation even if it is not sports related.
I think this book is a must have for every athlete as a resource for dealing with injury. The authors have a podcast where they interview athletes about their injuries and how they bounced back. They also have a great Facebook group where athletes can come and discuss and help each other during their injuries.